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Joseph Joachim

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Joachim’s Jubilee: New-York Tribune (May 7, 1899)

02 Thursday Dec 2021

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New-York Tribune, 7 May, 1899, Illustrated Supplement


JOACHIM’S JUBILEE.

––––––––––

HOW THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

THE GREAT VIOLINIST’S FIRST AP-

PEARANCE WAS CELEBRATED

IN BERLIN.

Berlin, April 28.

The great hall of the Philharmonie was filled to overflowing on Saturday night, April 23, for the celebration of the jubilee of Joseph Joachim, who sixty years ago, a little boy, eight years old, made his first public appearance as a virtuoso in Budapest, and began the career which has made him the master violinist of Germany, and in the opinion of many of the whole world. Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and the entire “noble army” of musicians, who as cameo reliefs on the pale green wall keep watch over the splendid hall, looked down on one of the most brilliant assemblies of famous men and women ever gathered together in Berlin to honor a man great “by the grace of God.” Musicians, artists, men of letters and learning, high officers and Ministers of State, with countless orders gleaming on their breasts, crowded the parquet, the boxes and the gallery to bear witness to the esteem in which they held Germany’s “grand old man.”

He sat there among them in the centre of the hall, in his big chair of honor, decorated with gorgeous azaleas, smiling on them all, pleased as a child and modest as only a great man can be. Only a few minutes before every one of those thousands of men and women, from the highest dignitary to the humblest music student at the far corners of the hall, had risen and cheered at his entrance, while the trumpets of three of the finest regiments in Berlin sounded a fanfare of welcome. How simple he was, as he came in, accompanied by a few devoted men, stopping to shake hands with a friend in the box above him, or laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of an old colleague as he passed him on his way down the aisle! The shouts of the people and the blare of the trumpets did not for one moment distract his attention from the familiar faces that beamed on him from all sides.

Indeed, they were all familiar faces. Robert von Mendelssohn, the banker and ‘cellist, descendant of the great Felix, and Joachim’s friend for many years, sat in the chair to his right. Across the passage to his left was the beloved old professor, Hermann Grimm, who had composed the prologue for the occasion, and coming toward him to welcome him was his friend and neighbor, Herr von Keudell. In the orchestra, every member of which was standing and waving his or her handkerchief, stood Wirth and Hausmann, Halir, and Moser and Markees, the two capable instigators and managers of the festival, and, besides these, old friends and pupils from all over the world, gray-haired men, middle-aged men, boys and girls, and no one could make noise enough. When the trumpets had ceased and the vast audience was seated, Fraulein Poppe, of the Royal Theatre, came to the front of the stage and recited the anniversary poem which Professor Grimm had written. It was a touching tribute, which grew in eloquence and feeling up to the last words, which were addressed to the orchestra, and as one exquisite mellow voice 144 stringed instruments responded with the opening strains of the overture to Weber’s “Euryanthe.” If ever an orchestra was inspired, that one was! No one who was not there can realize how perfectly the love and devotion to Joachim which every performer felt were breathed into that beautiful music. The audience sat spellbound. And no wonder, for such a collection of artists never played together before. Every city in Germany which could boast of a violin virtuoso sent him to play on this unique occasion, and not only Germany, but England, whose devotion to the great master is almost, if not quite, as great as that of his own country, sent the best two professors of the London Conservatory to represent her. Scattered among the older men were a few young ones, present pupils of Joachim, and about a dozen young girls in their light dresses, some of them with their hair still hanging in braids down their backs—German, English, American.

After the Joachim Variations, played by Petri, of Dresden, and after the overtures of Schumann and Mendelssohn, the “Genoveva” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the Brahms Symphony in C Minor, there were three stars on the Programme. “What did they mean?” Every one looked at every one else and nobody knew, but a surprise was evidently in store. Then a note from some one on the stage was carried to Joachim, and at the same moment the whole orchestra rose and began to croon softly the first measures of the Beethoven Concerto. Then all understood and cheered and clapped, but the master himself was of a different mind. He could be seen expostulating and gesticulating and shaking his head and sitting down, only to get up again to expostulate further. But the orchestra never stopped; the soft music went on insistently—it would not be denied. The people behind the boxes, standing on tables and chairs, leaned forward, not to lose a sight or sound. “They’re bringing his violin,” the whisper ran through the excited crowd; and, sure enough, there came three girls, a deputation of his favorite pupils, down the aisle toward him, holding out his wonderful Stradivarius.

When he took it in his hand the music suddenly ceased, and every drum and horn and fiddle began to pound and toot and shriek in a most enthusiastic “Tusch.” When he had taken his stand, the noble old man turned to the audience in a modest, deprecating way and said: “I haven’t practiced for three days and my hands ache. I have clapped so hard. There are many men in this orchestra who can play this better than I can, but if you really wish me to, I’ll do my best.” A pinfall could have been heard when he began. Every one sat breathless, expectant, and no one was disappointed. If another man in the world could have played better, no one in the audience would have conceded as much, for to a German a false note by Joachim, the “violin king,” is more inspired than the most perfect note of any other violinist living.

When he was through and had returned to his comfortable chair, they made him come back again and again and bow and bow, and were not satisfied until he took the baton in his hand and himself conducted the last number on the programme, the Bach Concerto in G Major. It was written for three violins, three violas, three ‘cellos and basso continuo, but was played by sixty-six violins, the number of the other instruments being increased in proportion. The whole orchestra remained standing throughout in honor of the director, and he deserved it, for Bach, in Joachim’s hands, has beauties which the most stubborn Philistine must feel.

The public had been requested to depart immediately after the close of the concert, that the room might be cleared for the banquet that was to be held there in honor of the hero of the evening, so the rank and file went early, leaving the more fortunate to enjoy the speeches and reminiscences of bygone times.

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Concert: Leipzig, Gewandhaus, March 23, 1854 (Hamlet Ov.)

27 Sunday Dec 2020

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Signale für die Musikalische Welt, vol. 12, no. 14 (March, 1854): 113-14.


Zwanzigstes Abonnementconcert
im Saale des Gewandhauses zu Leipzig. Donnerstag, den 23 März 1854

Erster Theil: Introduction und erste Scene aus “Iphigenie in Tauris” von Gluck. Iphigenie: Fräulein Clara Brockhaus. — Concert für die Violine von Henri Litolff, vorgetragen von Herrn Concertmeister R. Dreyschock. — Hymne für eine Sopranstimme und Chor von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; die Solopartie gesungen von Fräulein Brockhaus. — Ouverture zu “Hamlet von Jos. Joachim, (Manuscript, unter Direction des Componisten .) — Notturno für das Waldhorn, componirt von Lorenz, vorgetragen von Herrn A. Lindner, Fürstl. Reuß. Hofmusikus. — Zweiter Theil: Symphonie pastorale (Nr. 6) von L. van Beethoven. (Die Ausführung der Chöre durch die Mitglieder der Singakademie, des Pauliner-Sängervereins in Verbindung mit dem Thomanerchore.)

Wenn man seine Gedanken mittheilen will, so ist die erste Forderung an dieselben, daß sie verständlich seien. Nur unter den deutschen Philosophen und Componisten sehen wir zuweilen Individuen auftreten, die jenes Verlangen nicht erfüllen können oder nicht erfüllen wollen. Das ist eine wahrhaft betrübende Erscheinung, um so betrübender als sie namentlich in der Neuzeit gerade an den begabtesten Geistern am öftersten bemerkt wird! Wir haben Herrn Joachim vor Kurzem ein außergewöhnliches Compositions-talent zugesprochen und wir bleiben auch nach der Aufführung seiner Ouverture zu Hamlet bei unserer Meinung. Neuheit und Eigenthümlichkeit der Gedanken hat sie durchaus. Allein was hilft es, wenn wir nach dem Anhören eines Tonstückes sagen können: das war sehr neu, sehr eigenthümlich, und hinzufügen müssen: aber durchaus unbegreiflich? Und durchaus unbegreiflich ist uns seine Ouverture geblieben. Wir haben eine sehr lange Reihe seltsamer Gedanken gehört, worunter welche wie leuchtende Blitze in düsterer Nacht kurz aufzuckten, aber wir vermochten sie weder als eine einheitliche Form zu fassen, noch irgend einen Bezug in ihnen auf Shakspeares Hamlet zu er-

114

kennen. Herr Joachim wird gefunden haben, daß es dem ganzen Gewandhaus-Publikum so ergangen, und er weiß, daß das ganze Gewandhaus-Publikum ihn liebt. Kann oder will er seine Ideen in der Folge in eine begreifliche Form bringen und ihren Inhalt deutlicher ausdrücken, so steht ihm eine bedeutende Zukunft offen; auf dem Wege, den er mit diesem Werke betreten, geräth er in wüste Gegenden, wo keine Menschen wohnen, die Theil daran nehmen können. […]

3-hamlet-review-signale-23-march-1854-gewandhaus-copy-2-1

3 Hamlet Review Signale 23 March 1854 Gewandhaus copy

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Concert: Oxford, November 29, 1906

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

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The Oxford Magazine, 
vol. 25, no. 8, (December 5, 1906), p. 135.


MUSIC OF THE WEEK

THERE was the usual crowded and enthusiastic audience to welcome the Joachim Quartet at the Public Classical Concert on Thursday afternoon: the programme consisted of three string quartets, Mozart in D minor, Brahms in B flat, and Beethoven in C minor. Professor Wirth being still unable to play owing to eye-trouble, Herr Karl Klingler has been making his first visit to England, and, much younger than his famous colleagues though he is, he proves himself in every way worthy of the honour: the great viola passages in the Brahms quartet were played with quite superb breadth and insight, and throughout all the works his splendid tone and exceptional musicianship were very noticeable. Professors Halir and Hausmann were as wonderful as ever; and the passage of time leaves no trace on all the essential things in Dr. Joachim’s playing, nor is there any change in the extraordinary perfection of ensemble with which his colleagues reproduce every tinge of his moods. All his many long years of intimate love of the great music have resulted now in a style of extraordinarily ripe and mellow beauty: there is a lifetime of thought and reverence behind every note he plays, and at the age of seventy-five he can still teach us the last word in the art of interpretation. And yet there is nothing in the least degree stereotyped about his conceptions: absolutely faithful as they have always been, they are yet creative, and have varied, and still vary, to a considerable extent. On Thursday he was in a, on the whole, somewhat specially quiet and meditative vein: when we next hear him again, he might very possibly, in the same works, reveal to us different but equally great treasures from his inexhaustible store.

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The Athenæum: Review of Opp. 9 and 10, Hebrew Melodies and Variations on original Air

17 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism, Works

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The Athenæum, No. 1471 (5 January 1856), p. 18.


NEW PUBLICATIONS

Hebrew Melodies — Impressions of Byron’s Poems, for Tenor and Pianoforte, Op. 9. — Variations on and Original Air, for Tenor and Pianoforte, Op. 10. By Joseph Joachim. (Ewer  Co.) — We are disconcerted, rather than surprised, by the quality of these compositions. We know that creative power is not ensured by the possession of science or executive facility; but the absence of originality is here accompanied by a prominent uncouthness and eccentricity, to be regretted in one who commenced his artistic career so well (because so reverentially) as Herr Joachim. Yet however sorry we may be, we are not astonished. The school to which Herr Joachim has notoriously devoted himself on his arrival at years of discretion can only produce fruits like these. Critics who find that Dr. Schumann is deep while Haydn is shallow, — that Herr Wagner is poetical while Mendelssohn is mechanical, — may possibly recognize beauty, significance, idea, where we are merely aware of darkness, ambition, and unloveliness; but those with whom free judgment does not mean fanaticism, — who fancy that the Art of the Future must complete and carry out, not contradict, the Art of the Past, — will not receive these things as music. How curious is the choice which has made Herr Joachim write for pianoforte and tenor! That low-voiced “viol” has charming and effective qualities of its own, but these are not developed when it is used as a solo instrument, still less in combination with the pianoforte. There is more of whimsy than of wit in thus giving prominent employment to an instrument which is, and must be to the end of time, a secondary — nay, a ternary — instrument: — it being recollected that the instrumental is not like the vocal tenor, a reflection — or reproduction — with the new characteristics and new brilliancies — of the soprano. — Then, the subjects of these compositions may be described by the language employed by Olaus Magnus, in his chapter on ‘Snakes in Iceland.’ “Snakes in Iceland” (says the historian) “there be none.” A group of notes tumbled together does not make it either a “Hebrew melody” or an “Original air.” The first condition of a theme for variations is, that it should fix itself on the ear. It is true with that in his ‘Eroica’ and Choral Symphonies, and still more in his Posthumous Quartetts, the endeavour of Beethoven seems to have been to gratify the hearer by puzzling him; but it is no less true, that though Beethoven sometimes thought it fit to confuse his composition, by mixing up adjuncts and essentials, ritornels and melodies, his themes when reached, or however set, were in themselves distinct, symmetrical, seizing. This cannot be said, by the most exercised listener, of Herr Joachim’s “original air,” — which appears as if it had been expressly constructed to avoid beauty, and to throw out memory. The ‘Hebrew Melodies’ are still more mysterious, one phrase excepted, — the episode in A flat, p. 7, which must be noticed as almost the solitary example of form in these strange rhapsodies. Of which among Byron’s Hebrew Melodies are they impressions? — ‘The wild gazelle on Judah’s hills’? — ‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold’? — ‘Oh, Mariamne’? They might, for any pertinence or propriety that we can discern, be “impressions” of the ‘Hydrotaphia,’ or the Funeral Sermon for the Countess of Carbery, or Johnson’s Preface to his Dictionary. — The name of Poetry is invoked, but the nature of Music is absent.

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August Wilhelm Ambros: Review of Joachim’s Orchestration of Schubert’s Grand Duo, Op. posth. 140, D812

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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August Wilhelm Ambros: Review of Joachim’s Orchestration of Schubert’s Grand Duo, Op. posth. 140, D812. Wiener Zeitung, No. 260 (November 12, 1872): 1785. (Second concert of Hans von Bülow, November 7, 1872, in the small hall of the Vienna Musikverein).


Eine Symphonie von Franz Schubert schloß das Concert oder eigentlich eine Uebersetzung des Duo, Op. 140, aus dem Pianoforte ins Orchestrale. Joachim, der Uebersetzer, hat die Aufgabe glänzend gelöst. Schon Rob. Schumann hatte anfangs das Klavier-Duo für eine arrangirte Symphonie gehalten und war nur durch Schuberts eigenhändige Bezeichnung auf dem Originalmanuscript eines Anderen zu belehren. Man höre ja, meinte Schumann, ganz deutlich, selbst auf dem Klavier, die Orchestertutti, Horn- und Oboeneinsätze, Paukenwirbel u. s. w. Joachim hat das alles auch gehört und an rechte Stelle hinzuschreiben gewußt. Seine Bearbeitung macht durchaus den Eindruck eines Originalwerkes – sie sagt exoterisch, was esoterisch in dem Schubert’schen Klavierstück verborgen ist. Die Anklänge an Beethovens zweite und siebente Symphonie hat schon Schumann bemerkt.

Kaum ein anderes Werk Schuberts läßt die directe Einwirkung Beethoven’scher Vorbilder so deutlich erkennen als dieses dennoch originelle und echt Schubert’sche Duo. Auch darin ist es echt schubertisch, daß Freund Franz im Finale wie gewöhnlich die Ausgangsthüre eine gute Weile sucht, ehe er sie endlich findet. Er gleicht in der That in seinen größeren Instrumentalwerken ein wenig dem Blutegel des Horatius im Schlußvers des Pisonen-Briefes. Schumann zählt das Duo (mit Recht) zu Schuberts besten Arbeiten – „wir haben eine Symphonie mehr“, sagt er. Jetzt haben wir sie durch Joachim wirklich und wahrhaftig, und wir danken ihm dafür!


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Alexander Wheelock Thayer on Joachim and Clara Schumann in the Berlin Singakademie, 1855

03 Friday Jan 2020

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Dwight’s Journal of Music, vol. 8, no. 10 (Boston, 8 December 1855), 78-79 .


Nov. 10.— What can I say? I am too excited, too much ‘carried away,’ and yet would fain record, that hereafter I may recall in some faint degree, the feelings with which I have heard CLARA SCHUMANN and JOACHIM again. [The concert took place in Berlin’s Singakademie on November 4, 1855 —RWE] Have I sneered at virtuosity? Never at such as this! Where and how to begin? The lauguage of the critics is like Sanscrit to me. I can neither use it myself nor understand it in others. I must—as I can with truth—comprehend all technical description in one phrase—there are no difficulties to them in their respective instruments. What are difficulties to other performers are so easily overcome, are played with such perfect calmness and rest, and glide away so unnoticed from their fingers that you cannot think to wonder at them. Let me go back a week.

It was a concert with orchestra in the Sing Akademie. Again, as last winter, I found it so beautiful in them, when all was ready, to come down to their places in front of the orchestra, so modestly and simply as if the audience was but a meeting of friends—with no display, no evident wish to be greeted with applause, no zany-like contortions of body, nor tossing of heads, but quiet and calm in their strength, without anxiety, without triumph. The overture to Byron’s “Manfred”, led by that excellent director STERN, and played by our new ‘Orchester Verein’, opened the concert. A powerful work, expressive of struggle and commotion of spirit. Schumann’s strong side, as it seems to me. Then followed his Concerto in A, minor, for piano-forte and orchestra, which she played. I was badly seated to get the proper effect of the work, but not to see the mastery with which the pianist ruled her instrument. What force and what delicacy! How wonderfully those handfuls of notes spoke out the deepest thoughts of Robert Schumann! Here a sigh, and there a tear—here the struggles of a giant, there the soothing voice of an angel. It is this wondrous power of entering into the very soul of the composer, which makes Clara Schumann what she is. Others can equal her in the technicalities of playing, but no woman approaches her in this thing. I met a lady a day or two after, who asked me how Madame Schumann appeared? “She seemed to me care-worn and sad; as well she may, poor woman! said I. “She appeared just so years ago, when she was a young girl, and came here to triumph over all,” said the lady. “She never had a childhood. Her father was determined to make a virtuoso of her, and the joyousness of youth she never knew. Even then her countenance showed her secret sorrow. Is not this the reason that she plays BEETHOVEN as no other living ? Does she not feel that great struggling spirit in his music? does it not sympathize with her, and share every trouble, and soothe, and calm and speak peace? When she plays his music, you think no more of composer and performer than you do of SHAKSPEARE when reading his dramas. On this evening she only played some variations by the great master, in C minor. No mere finger-work, but full of feeling and beauty.

Joachim’s first piece was a sonata for the violin solo, by BACH. I had heard it a day or two before, when he played it to an audience of two, curled up upon the lounge; and as he now stood up before the large audience, there was no change in his demeanor, no variation in his manner of playing; all was just as simple and unaffected as before, and what is the secret of this, but his love for the music ? And truly I begin to have some faint conception of that man Bach’s greatness. What power, depth and quaint beauty in this work! The first movement has a grand, sweeping power, producing an effect that one could hardly expect from the instrument. Then follows a quaint fugue, on four subjects, I think; but can that be possible? I heard it twice and hardly dare say it; and then an Adagio, full of soul, and a finale, capricious and wild, and full of technical difficulties hardly to be imagined. One never would imagine it from the manner of Joachim. RELLSTAB says of the performance: “The poet says:

‘In him have I

The model of a perfect man beheld.’

“We can quote these words in relation to this artist, in whom we honor a model of perfect performance. Not the storm of applause at the close, but the breathless stillness during the piece praised him the most. In the solution of his problem not only did no note of the smallest importance fail him, but no stroke of power, no spark of fire, no breath of tenderness; it was the most perfect Daguerreotype of the work.”

But it was in the last piece that I felt his mighty power to the fullest extent This was that grand work of Beethoven’s ripest years, the Concerto for violin and orchestra, op. 61, in D. I had heard it at a concert of the Orchester-Verein not long before, the solo by Concert-master LAUB, from Vienna. He had played it with distinguished skill and it had not failed of making its due impression. But now! Still as the tomb was that house, the audience being prepared for the noble orchestral opening by the delicate variations before mentioned, which immediately preceded it. This work was written at that period when Beethoven’s genius proved in the fourth Symphony, that as a mere artist, a simple writer of music, he was behind none. So in this work the deep sorrow of the later period does not appear. The giant is there in the Allegro, but a giant rejoicing in his strength. What tenderness, what unheard-of depths of human feeling in the Larghetto! ” You need not be ashamed of your wet eyes,” said Miss G. to me, “there are many others here in the same state.”

If Joachim would only put on a few artist airs, one could think of him; as it is, the stream of music carries us along with it and the very heart strings are vibrating to every tone of that marvellous instrument. If he would not be so calm and utterly buried in his own feelings, there would be some escape. But no. He seizes upon you by his very personal appearance, and after the first tones all escape from his enchantment is impossible. And so the Larghetto ended and the people waked from their trance—the magic bonds were loosed. The deepest feelings had been excited. The British Spy wondered how the audience of the blind preacher could be brought down from the pitch of excitement to which his eloquence had raised them. Had any one but Beethoven written that Larghetto, or had any other than Joachim played the Rondo (Finale), I should have feared like the British Spy. But when did Beethoven ever fail in placing just exactly the right thing after one of his heart-reaching, soul-thrilling Andantes or Adagios? With what abounding life and joyousness did the Rondo spring from beneath Joachim’s bow! His own figure, calm as it was, seemed to feel in every nerve the change. The orchestra was inspired to a man, and the audience were electrified. That the “gloomy Beethoven!” This last movement is the very champaigne of music; Joachim poured it out to us, until we were “like Bacchus, crowned and drunken!”

A. W. T.


Hans von Bülow reviewed this concert in the Berliner Feuerspritze:

The hall of the Sing-Akademie was brilliantly reinaugurated by means of the concert given by Frau Schumann and Herr Joseph Joachim, and since Franz Liszt such beautiful music has not been heard in this room. This evening will remain unforgotten and unique in the memories of those who partook of this artistic pleasure, which has filled all with lasting enthusiasm. It was not Joachim who yesterday played Beethoven and Bach, Beethoven himself played!

That was not an interpretation of the highest genius, it was a revelation. Even the most incredulous must believe in miracles, a similar transubstantiation has never been. Never has a work of art been brought before the mind’s eyes e in such life and spirit, nor has the immortality of genius before appeared so lustrous and sublime in its truest reality. One wished to listen on one’s knees! Anyway  description of the impression which Beethoven’s tenth symphony [i.e. the Violin Concerto —RWE]  made yesterday would be a desecration.

Frau Schumann surpassed herself in her rendering of Robert Schumann’s pianoforte concerto. If all the compositions of the leading modern composers of instrumental music were interpreted with such wonderful perfection, the whole conception so rhythmic and with such subtlety of detail, they would soon make headway even with the most reserved and opposing public. Schumann’s pianoforte concerto won the sympathy of all, through the great pianist, who poured her whole soul into her interpretation of it. In addition, we may  also mention that the piano solo of this orchestral piece cannot be called otherwise than a ‘grateful’ part. But how particularly grateful it is for this artist!

Andreas Moser, Joseph Joachim: A Biography (1831-1899), tr. Lilla Durahm, London: Philip Wellby, 1901, pp. 154-155.


Durch das gestern abend stattgehabte Konzert von Frau Clara Schumann und Herrn Joseph Joachim erfuhr der Saal der Singakademie eine überaus glänzende Rehabilitation. Seit Franz Liszt ist in deisen Räumen nie so schöne Musik gehört worden. Dieser Abend wird unvergeßlich und einzig bleiben in der Erinnerung der Teilnehmer an diesem Kunstgenuß, der jeden mit nachwirkender Begeisterung erfüllt hat. Nicht Joachim hat gestern Beethoven und Bach gespielt, Beethoven selbst hat gespielt!

Das war keine Verdolmetschung des höchsten Genius, es war eine Offenbarung. Auch der Ungläublgste muå an Wunder glauben; eine ähnliche Transsubstantiation ist noch nicht geschehen. Nie ist ein Kunstwerk so lebendig und verklärt vor das innere Auge geführt worden, nie die Unsterblichkeit des Genius so leuchtend und erhaben in die wirklichste Wirklichkeit getreten. Auf den Knien hätte man zuhören mögen! Jede Schilderung des Eiondruckes, den Beethoven’s zehnte Symphonie gestern erregt hat, wäre eine Entweihung.

Frau Dr. Schumann übertraf sich selbst in dem Vortrage von Robert Schumanns Klavierkonzert. Wenn die Komposition des hervorragendsten modernen Instrumentalkomponisten mit solch wunderbarer Vollendung, mit so schwunghafter Totalauffassung und so ausgefeilter Nuancierung aller Einzelheiten interpretiert werden, so brechen sie sich auch bei dem widerstrebendsten, zurück-

217

haltendsten Publikum Bahn. Schumanns Klavierkonzert hat aller Sympathien errungen durch die große Meisterin, die den ihr verwandten Geist so unvergleichlich zur Mitteilung gebracht hat. Hierbei geben wir noch zu bedenken, daß die Klavierpartie dieses Orchesterstückes nichts weniger als eine ‘dankbare’ zu nennen ist. Wie äußerst dankbar bewährte sich dieselbe aber für die Künstlerin!

Andreas Moser, Joseph Joachim. Ein Lebensbild, vol. 1, Berlin: Verlag der Deutschen Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1908, pp. 216=217

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Dwight’s Journal of Music — Joachim and Clara Schumann’s Singakademie Concerts in Berlin, 1855

01 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism, Reminiscences & Encomia, Uncategorized

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Dwight’s Journal of Music, vol. 6, no. 25 (Boston, March 24 1855), 196-197.

It seems likely that this article is by Alexander Wheelock Thayer, the renowned Beethoven biographer, who was a regular Berlin correspondent for Dwight’s, and who came to know Joachim and the Arnims at that time.


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Adolph von Menzel
Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann in the Singakademie, Berlin
December 20, 1854

Diary Abroad.—No. 12.

196

BERLIN. Feb. 5. — […]

“Im Saale der Sing-Akademie, Soirée von Clara Schumann und Joseph Joachim.”

I was at my thankless (almost hopeless, alas!) task, in the Royal Library, when a young man came in, somewhat above middle size, strongly built, face rather thin, though the leading features, nose, mouth, chin, are large, well-formed and noble; the forehead broad, but apparently not high, owing to the immense mass of black hair, which grows down low upon it; the eyes not very large and somewhat injured in their expression by near-sightedness, As he spoke with the Professor, the whisper passed round, “Joachim, Joachim!” In the afternoon I went to a distant part of the city to deliver a letter, and there upon the writing table were lying the original autograph scores of several of Beethoven’s works, among them that Quartet which contains the movement over which, in Beethoven’s own hand (in German), stands “Song of thanksgiving offered to the Deity by a convalescent, in the Lydian Mode.” While looking at this, Joachim entered. Of this unexpected interview I have nothing to relate, save that the love and reverence for the great master, which he exhibited, wrought upon me somewhat as Jenny Lind’s reverence for her Art seems to have operated upon so many among us, who generally think more of music than of executants.

Of the three concerts given by the two artists together I heard two. The programmes were: for Dec. 16th—

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At the first of these two concerts I had an excellent seat on the centre passage-way, and not far from the stage, and it was truly pleasant to the eye for once to see the Sing-Akademie’s hall full, the auditorium having no seat unfilled, and the eighty voices (about) of the Stern Society, with twenty or thirty auditors, filling the stage so far as to prevent a sense of emptiness. For a concert of this kind I know no hall finer. The audience, I saw at a glance, was of the chosen people of Berlin, musically speaking—not a few of them, also, biblically speaking— men and women to whom the styles and excellences of every great pianist and violinist for thirty years back were perfectly familiar. For novices, or second-rate performers, what an ordeal to pass! Sh! there they come. The first appearance of a virtuoso—I mean the manner in which he or she comes forward to the task—goes no small way with me in my feeling toward them. I could ask nothing better here. It was just as it should be. Clara Schumann and Joachim came forward together from behind the choir as calmly as if in their own room—as if every one knew them and they knew every one. There was no bowing and scraping, and fidgeting and fussing, and simpering and smirking, until every person of common sense was almost “sick unto death.” They came forward to the piano-forte, when she quietly took her seat, and he just as quietly took one of the unoccupied chairs near. When she finished her Sonata, she quietly sat down by him, and there they sat and listened, both quietly, to the Lieder by the choir. This air of quiet and repose was so refreshing! Then the audience sat and chatted a few minutes, and so did they; and then he rose up to give us the Prelude and Fugue for the violin alone. Well, he played it. There was no flourish about it, he laid his violin lovingly to his cheek, and his instrument sang old Bach’s music so clearly, distinctly, powerfully, gently, and with such perfect ease, that one felt as if that was no very difficult thing to do! You see in Joachim’s entire personal appearance that he thinks not of showing what he can do; he loves Bach and enters into the very soul of his music, and means that his hearers shall also. I do not believe that there is the slightest difference between his playing that piece when alone and here before the public—unless be happens to be more in the Bach mood, in one case than in the other. But to think of playing a regular fugue on the violin! When it was finished he sat down again by Frau Schumann and chatted away; he had done nothing extraordinary. Her appearance pleased me as much as his. I know not how, but somehow I had expected to see a woman at least of middle age, perhaps a little grey ready (think how many years we have been reading about Clara Wieck and Clara Schumann!) of course rather muscular, else whence the power for which she is so renowned ?—and could hardly believe my eyes when Joachim first came in with—as Mrs. —— always says—”the dearest little woman.” In her whole appearance is something most winning, and were she not the great artist she is, she could win all suffrages. The common medallion profile of her (with her husband) is excellent, though her face is now thinner than when it was taken, and it does not—cannot of course—do justice to her large, full, splendid dark eyes. At the second concert I had a seat on the stage hard by the piano-forte, and the impression made upon me by both artists was but strengthened. Each has so completely overcome all the technical difficulties of his or

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her instrument, that you forget totally that virtuosos are before you—instead of thinking of them, you commune with Bach and Beethoven—you learn to appreciate Bach—his thoughts become yours, and a pure musical enjoyment is the result, instead of stupid wonder at “How can they do it?”

You never heard such a tone! One violinist of great display excels in imitating a flute; another can transform (in the “Carnival of Venice,” which Joachim did not play) his instrument into a hurdy-gurdy, and into a triangle and cymbals, for aught I know—Joachim always plays the violin—and that too, I guess, in passages in which our hurdy-gurdy friend would be right glad to do the same. One, who shall be nameless, rather prides himself upon being able to sing in falsetto just like his antique and venerable grandmother. His friends, though, consider Salvi’s or Perelli’s tenor as of much more value. I suppose the principal characteristics of Joachim’s playing may be summed up in—extraordinary purity and fullness of tone, the most perfect intonation, an un-rivalled (by any living violinist) mastery of all and singular, the difficulties of his instrument and a complete understanding of and sympathy with his author, be he Bach, Beethoven, Spohr, Paganini, Mendelssohn or David.

I do not suppose we shall ever hear him in America. He does not like the concert room. I am not aware that during my three winters in Germany he has been away from his post except by a special invitation to play for the Gustav Adolph Verein in Hamburg and for Clara Schumann and her sick husband here. I doubt whether he would make out well with our public. He would play no clap-trap; would cut no violin capers, which would make the angelic Cecilia with a fiddle (of Raphael) weep. He would not give the “Carnival” with variations, and then play to the encore Yankee Doodle bedevilled. He is an earnest, sincere, noble artist, in whom is no humbug. Would though, that that increasing class of true musical hearts and souls in Boston and New York could have Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim with them one winter! I declare I cannot forget the simple, unaffected ease of their appearance before that audience; how each sat down with the audience to listen to the other, and how they seemed to enjoy their music, as if it was all new. But then their music was music. So the other night magnificent JOHANNA WAGNER sang in the same place for HANS VON BULOW, and when she had sung stepped down to some friends in the audience; sat with them until her turn came again, and then stepped back and sung—O how gloriously!

It will be seen that several pieces by Robert Schumann were given. The more ambitious ones did not take; those of a simpler and gentler character pleased much. I have my doubts in relation to him. Some of the pillars of the musical world here seem to think that Joachim is injuring himself by the amount of study he bestows upon the works of Schumann and the school to which he belongs.

________

N. B. Since the above was written I have had the pleasure of an interview with an intimate friend of Joachim, and all hope of our ever hearing him in America has vanished. There is no longer any special satisfaction to him in his violin. All that has been done with the instrument he has done. Every difficulty he has conquered. All that has been written for the instrument he knows, and his thoughts now turn only to the grand orchestra. He has a positive dislike to playing in public, and I was right as to his recent appearances being merely for a charitable and friendly purpose. He is now Royal Concert-master In Hanover, and lives much as Haydn did with Esterhazy. When he wishes to try one of his orchestral compositions, a splendid orchestra is at his disposal; be cares nothing for money and his salary is sufficient for his wants. His ambition now lies only in the new path of composer, and I cherish strong hopes that Joachim, who has so captivated me, may prove an exception to the general rule that violinists remain violinists.

________

“Total forgetfulness of self will alone develop that which is most desirable in ourselves, either as Artist or Man; and by that humility and forgetfulness will many a feeble man leave a deeper mark on his time than the egotist or mightier power.” — Crayon


RWE: This quote is from an article entitled “Beauty and its Enemies” in the March 14, 1855 issue of The Crayon, (New York) vol. 1, no. 11, p. 161:

“The instant that pride or a desire for self-display enters into the composition of any work of Art, the perception of the Beautiful becomes clouded, and, in all things, we mingle our own imperfections and weaknesses with the purity and beauty of Nature. Perfect humility before nature will alone lead us to those perpetually opening mazes of new beauties and wonders which always exist for the Artist. Total forgetfulness of self will alone develop that which is most desirable in ourselves, either as Artist or Man; and by that humility and forgetfulness will many a feeble man leave a deeper mark on his time than the egotist of mightier power. Pride is indeed Beauty’s worst enemy, and more dangerous from being often her child; and from the very gift which should beget thankfulness and humility, arise arrogance and inordinate self-esteem.

It one of the problems for the moralist to study out—for us we have only to show to those who are, or would be, seekers of Beauty either as manifest in themselves—the noblest form of artistic action—or as shown in the works of creation, that the most extreme humility will develop in them the highest talent, while its opposite will chain them to a circle perpetually growing less. All that gives token of vanity in Art disfigures and weakens. All undue love of execution or of manifestations of mere power, or of any quality in fact, the root of whose preference lies in the fact of its belonging to one’s self, strikes at the root of the Artist’s greatness. There is a working out of one’s own mind in Art which is glorious; but this is unconscious always, and shown by necessity, because some rare faculty had been given, or some peculiarity of temperament bestowed, by which the conceptions of the Artist become tinged, as though seen through a beautifully colored glass, giving a sweeter harmony than we ourselves see; but this no man can render who does not equally forget himself, and represent Nature as he sees it entirely. The intrusion of self for Pride’s sake brings only deformity and darkness.

A less dangerous enemy is Sensuality, less dangerous, because more readily understood, and because it more rarely befalls great minds. While Pride stiffens and congeals the soul of the Artist, Sensuality clouds and chokes it; and he who is content to follow his sensual perceptions delighting in them for their own sake, stands ever in danger of having all that is noble buried by the material elements of his Art. Color, for instance, noble and essential in its place, becomes base and degrading, when cared for for itself alone.”

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The Joachim Quartet in Weimar: NZfM, December, 1851

14 Saturday Dec 2019

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. 35, no. 26 (December 26, 1851): 285-286.


Wir gehen einstweilen zu einem erfreulichen Gegenstande über, dem vorzüglichen Kunstgenuß, welcher uns durch eine Reihe seit zwei Jahren entbehrter Quartettabende geboten wurde. Der seltene Verein von vier, jedes in seiner Art, ausgezeichneten Talenten, unterstützt von einem auf den belebenden Einfluß unseres nicht genug zu schätzenden Joachim gegründeten, seit lange im Privatkreise sorgsam gepflegten und polirten Ensemble, berecthigte uns freilich auch zu Erwartungen ungewöhnlicher Art.

Daß Joachim einer der ersten lebenden Geiger ist, daß sein voller und dabei so durchsichtiger in Ton, seine meisterhafte Technik, welche seit vielen Jahren schon keine Schwierigkeiten mehr kennt, seine echt künstlerische und geniale Auffassung der verschiedensten Tonsetzer ihn wahrscheinlich noch höheren Ausprüchen berechtigen, ist bekannt; Coßmann’s Spiel zeichnet sich vor dem aller anderen Violoncellisten dadurch aus, daß er seine große Virtuosität, seinen geschmackvollen, eleganten Vortrag nie zu der wahren Kunst fremden Nebenzwecken mißbraucht, daß er in der Beherrschung des Instrumentes z. B. Rietz, an künstlerischem Geiste Servais weit übertrifft. H. Stöhr ist als Violinspieler und Componist leider nicht so allgemein bekannt, als er es verdient. Eine gewisse

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unerklärliche Befangenheit beim Solovortrag — ähnlich der, an welcher Henselt litt, — hat ihn verhindert, seine vorzüglichen Eigenschaften vor der größeren Oeffentlichkeit zur Geltung zu bringen; in den Stücken mit Clavierbegleitung, wo er erste Geige spielte, verschaffen sie sich anerkennende Bewunderung. Hr. Stör ist jetzt an des pensionirten Eberwein Stelle Musikdirector geworden. In allen Gebieten des Orchesters zu Hause, mit frischem, regem Eifer, edlem künstlerischem Streben begabt, wie er ist, hat er uns in seiner Antrittsdirection der “Preziosa” zu erfreulichen Hoffnungen berechtigt. Hr. Walbrül (Bratsche) ist ebenfalls ein tüchtiger Künstler, der durch seine vielseitigen Talente mehr als einen Platz ausfüllt. Im Orchester fungiert er bei der Violine und bei den neueren Opern, z. B. den Wagner’schen, als Baßclarinettist. Er leistet das Rühmlichste in allen diesen Fächern; in dem letzteren namentlich sind wir ihm nicht am wenigsten Dank schuldig, da in mehreren auf ihr Orchester sehr eingebildeten Städten noch heute das unedle Fagott die herrliche Baßclarinette ersetzn muß. — Rechnet man zu diesem Ensemble noch die geistige Mitwirkung Franz Liszts, die wir auf die Gefahr hin hierorts der Indiscretion beschuldigt zu werden, nicht umhin können zu erwähnen, da die hohe Intelligenz des Meisters dem Ganzen eine Feinheit der Nüancirung verleiht, welche, wenn auch der Laie von ihrer Qualität sich keine bestimmte Rechenschaft geben kann, doch so wichtig für die Totalwirkung ist, so wird man uns nicht der Uebertreibung anklagen, wenn wir sagen, daß die Weimar’schen diesjährigen Quartettabende etwas Exceptionelles bieten, was nicht leicht oder vielmehr gar nicht anderwärts gefunden werden dürfte. Die vortreffliche Auswahl des Programmes geht Hand in Hand mit der vollendeten Ausführung. Die erste Soirée (18 Nov.) brachte uns mit schuldiger Rücksicht auf das Herkommen Quartett von Haydn, B=Dur, das gesangreiche G=Moll Quartett von Mozart und das F=Dur Quartett von Beethoven (Op. 59, Nr. 1). Am 9ten December hörten wir eine treffliche Zusammenstellung moderner Meisterwerke: das Schubert’sche D=Moll Quartet, das Schumann’sche Clavierquintett in Es=Dur — der Clavierpart wurde von Hrn. V. Bülow, Schüler Liszt’s, wie es schien mit Liebe zur Sache und der Aufgabe gewachsenen Kräften ausgeführt — und das Octett von Mendelssohn. Der Abend des 16ten December brachte Gade’s G=Moll Quintett, ein recht schönes, aber etwas nordisch=monotones Werk, Mendelssohn’s G=Moll Trio von dem jungen trefflichen Clavierspieler Winterberger, der, seitdem er nach Weimar in Liszt’s Schule gekommen ist, ein ausgezeichneter Pianist zu werden verspricht, und Beethoven’s F=Moll Quartett, Op. 95 diese gedrängte Emanation des herrlichen Genius aus einem Gusse. Für den 30sten Decbr., die letzte Soirée, stehen uns drei Beethoven’sche Quartette aus seinen verschiedenen Schöpfungsperioden bevor, das A=Dur Quartett (Op. 18) das sogenannte Harfenquartett aus Es=Dur (Op. 74) und das große Eis=Moll Quartett (Op. 131). Das für die Geschmacksläuterung des Publikums so wohlthätige Werk findet allgemeinen Anklang, ungeachtet der ziemlich hohen aber angemessenen Eintrittspreise. Daß dies der Fall, haben wir dem Kunstsinn des Hofes, d. h. der großherzoglichen Familie zu danken, deren sämmtliche Glieder bis jetzt jedes Mal vom ersten bis letzten Tone mit wahrer Andacht zugehört haben, eine so seltene Erscheinung, daß wir auch keinen Anstand nehmen, — honny soit qui mal y pense — die Achtung auszusprechen, welche und diese anspruchslose Mäcenasschaft einflößt, in einer Zeit, wo das Gedeihen der Kunst auf naturwüchsigem Wege aus dem Volke heraus, leider zu den Unmöglichkeiten gehört.

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Concert: Crystal Palace, March 5, 1888 (Brahms Concerto/Bach Double)

12 Sunday May 2019

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism

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Croydon Advertiser and East Surrey Reporter (Saturday, 10 March 10, 1888), p. 7.


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Concert: Leipzig, Gewandhaus, October 19, 1848

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by Joachim in Concert Reviews & Criticism, Uncategorized

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Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 296 (22 October 1848) p. 3888


Beethoven’s Violinconcert, welches Hr. Joseph Joachim, seit kurzem Mitglied unseres Orchesters, spielte, hörten wir von dem genannten Künstler in dem Zeitraum von drei Jahren zum dritten Male. Es ist das ein Uebermaß, und Referent tadelt darum die Wahl, sowie er es Armuth des Repertoire nennen würde, wenn ein Pianofortespieler in so kurzem Zeitraum drei Mal an demselben Orte dasselbe Beethoven’sche Pianoforteconcert spielen wollte. Auch mit der Ausführung glaubte Referent diesmal weniger zufrieden sein zu müssen. So sehr er das Talent und die Leistungen des in Rede stehenden Künstlers schätzt, es wollte ihm scheinen, als ob der Vortrag diesmal weniger glücklich gewesen wäre; vorzüglich war derselbe nur im Adagio und den Cadenzen.

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Photo collage © Mathias Brösicke — Dematon, Weimar

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